Did you forget, media?

WWhen we arrived in South Carolina over three decades ago, I remember driving past Broughton Street (near the current location of our computer shop) to Bill Wannamaker's Chevrolet dealership that had existed for nearly 50 years for a car purchase. We purchased two vehicles from there, mostly from the same salesman, before the family sold the dealership to a combination of the Toyota dealership and a local insurance agent. Four years later, when they wanted out, General Motors took away our local dealership, and handed it over to the dealership in the town next door which has been in business since 1926, the Fairey family (Phillip, and now generations of Joseph Faireys, with III currently, and IV joining a few years ago; I remember watching Joseph IV playing ball for the private school in the area), who moved their dealership from Bridge Street to its current US 601 near the hospital and Interstate 26 (the Faireys added Cadillac in 1998 when the Cadillac dealership, a conglomerate, sold out; the Nissan half of that dealership was sold to the Brickles). The Chrysler dealership in town, a Brickle family dealership (Benjamin Sr, Jr, now III "Benji"), started as a Plymouth dealership in 1946 and also was about a thousand feet past the Wannamakers and slowly acquired all of Chrysler's brands where by last year, it was a Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram dealership, moving also to the new "Auto Mile" three years after the Faireys. The Buick dealership started as a Pontiac dealership in 1946 and acquired by General Manager James O. Guthrie in 1963 and later became Buick-Pontiac-GMC-Jeep before Obama started whisking the Guthries away; a Honda dealership was added in the 1990's, and Kia joined in January. They still are in their old US 301 lot, far from the Auto Mile of 601/26. (The salesman who had sold my father two vehicles joined the Guthries after Wannamaker sold the dealership; Guthrie died two years ago and was succeeded by his son James Guthrie III, so literally you have the GM and Chrysler dealerships run by guys with III in their names, as successors to their fathers (and more) who ran dealerships.)

That compares to the oft-sold Toyota (Covington, Whatley, Richards) and Ford (Horne, Driskell, Whatley, Gibbes) dealerships that are owned by out of town interests who have no connection to the community. The Ford dealership sales were consistent that Ford decided to pull its franchise in town, and give a dealership 20 miles to the west our region, 20 years after moving to US 301, about a half-mile past the Buick dealership. That dealer shut its offices in that city and instead moved to the local site, between the Buick and Kia dealerships of the Guthries. The former dealership location in that town is now a Life Enhancement Centre. How can you build loyalty when there's enough turnover? Ha! Let the feds seize your opponents, and hurt the family dealerships who have over 200 years of experience.

All the hubbub over the controversy over Obama Motor Company (remember The Seizure, which was politically motivated by the green car mandate of the feds and the Chicago Style work of this leadership?) over the payback of the loans reminded me that everyone's saying Ford is the only "innocent" party, Sorry, folks. This is the proof of that nearly six billion dollar loan they took from the feds for the Obama Tiny Car Mandate. Mind you remember that they produced this "Candidate's Choice" sticker referencing Obama? Nissan took another $1.6 billion off the same mandate that will result in the Leaf for Model Year 2011. Tesla received our cash to assist in more Tesla all-electric cars.

Why has few in the media remembered that Ford took our cash to build what Obama wants them to build? ◙